BN or Pakatan: Don’t Believe Both!

In the run up to the 13th General Elections, Ramesh and his wife Shalini busied themselves every night, attending this ceramah and that ceramah. Being a staunch supporter of Pakatan Rakyat and believing that the country needed change, he attended every ceramah after work.

“We need change! Make me PM!”

Lim Kit Siang came, he went.

Mat Sabu came, he went.

Anwar came, he went.

The premise of all three speakers were all about corruption within the government, the usage of foreigners to vote and the need to have a better government. Every single one said the same thing.

Ramesh, like thousands of everyone, also attended the Bersih rally. You can’t blame him, he loves his country, just like you and me. And he deeply believed that change in government was important, and I agree with him. He came home with bruises and cuts and pissed at the police. He blamed reporters from the mass media. Hated government department personnel.

He was so blinded by supporting the Opposition that he believed every thing said by these politicians were the Gospel truth. It was a similar situation with our friends in Barisan Nasional, too.

To Ramesh, Anwar said that the government would be using foreigners to vote, he nodded his head.

Kit Siang said it was time to Ubah, he nodded his head.

Mat Sabu sneezed, he nodded his head.

Come May 5th, voting and all completed, he sits with his wife at the television to see the results.
Barisan Nasional was announced as the winner. He closed his television and went to bed weeping.

While BN blamed the Chinese and Pakatan called BN racist, Pakatan blamed the Bangladeshis, instead. Both practised blatant racism.

“Is that Rosmah’s jet?”

The next day, Ramesh’s Facebook newsfeed was filled with distraught statuses and postings of frustrated voters. “Democracy is dead!” “Blackout day!” People were changing their profile photos and cover photos to black.

Black, became the new… err.. black.

He attended Anwar’s post May 5th ceramahs and rallies, donning a black tshirt seething with anger not only at his government but at the Bangladeshis too. His liberal friends often chided him for his stupidity, but he often brushed their comments aside.

“We need to Ubah!” This phrase has sort of become a motto for every Opposition supporter. To rebut them, he cited how the government used foreigners for voting purposes. It made sense to him. Apparently there were video evidence and all too.

Ofcourse, as logic would say, Pakatan never became the next government despite the rallies and the evidences were never shown. Ramesh and Shalini silently went on with their lives.

Well, Ramesh and Shalini, there can be 1,001 Najibs and Anwars, but the only one who can save yourself and your country is you alone.

Start thinking on your own feet, Malaysians and don’t be dictated around by politicians from both sides.
But no. We Malaysians will never learn.

Malaysians! Spell stupid.

Which brings me to my next topic that correlates with the one above; why Malaysians should stop hero worshipping political parties.

Now, hear me out. If there is one thing hardcore supporters of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat can agree upon, is the fact that the 1st Malaysian Prime Minister, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, was a noble, honest and loving leader of this country.

Forget about Mahathir and Anwar, this man, was in a league of his own.

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When one talks about politicians, many would forget the true exemplary ones; Martin Luther King Jr, Mahathma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and the list goes on. And Tunku is in this list.

Now, these were not really politicians in my opinion. They were true leaders of a nation.

And sadly, Malaysia and her people, deeply misses this. We lack a leader that unifies her people.

When one talks about the government politicians being corrupted, few forget that a number of them in the Opposition, were, alas, from the same old basket.

But why do we need to move away from hero worshipping political parties?

If you’re a staunch Opposition supporter, you might have heard the likes of Saifuddin Abdullah, Zaid Ibrahim, Kamalanathan, and KJ (if you don’t know who he is, please kindly jump down a 13th floor and if you’ve survived, google up the ministry of youth and sports). These are but some good and reliable individuals who have immense capabilities to move the country forward. Forget which party they represent for once, and focus on their qualities.

Not forgetting the upcoming leaders from the other side, Ong Kia Ming, Nurul Izzah, Rafizi Ramli, Nasrudin Hassan (I dislike his ideologies when it comes to religion, but love the groundwork he does to his constituents in Temerloh. Truly exemplary).

We need leaders not politicians. When one supports a political party, one basically supports the whole jing bang in the party regardless if there are rotten apples, half eaten apples and ripe ones. And that is why it would spell trouble.

We Malaysians, are constantly being bombarded by propaganda after propaganda. The Barisan Nasional with their 1Malaysia and Opposition with their Ubah.

You can never get 1Malaysia nor Ubah Malaysia for good if you vote based on a party.

I have often time and time again stressed that the best, most democratic way to vote is by voting after conducting thorough research on a candidate. Reading about their background, learning about their ideologies, observing how they served their constituents previously or the departments they were in. In order to vote, one needs to start thinking like a reporter/detective.

Attend both sides ceramah and political functions and observe and witness every single detail right from the body language of both the candidates to the way they bring themselves.

Why?

Because I really think it is time we Malaysians make the politicians work for us rather the other way around. We are the employers and they, the employees. They should be working with us and for us. Not the other way.

We Malaysians sadly don’t see this. Blinded for the love of a political party or a coalition, we often at times find ourselves quarreling among ourselves, while these jokers whom we elected into the august parliament tear up motions and behave worst than little children do.

If we, vote base on common sense and after thorough research, we would have more Nurul Izzahs, more Ong Kia Mings, more Saifuddin Abdullahs and Kamalanathans.

And one day, one day we would have a leader as bright, as noble, as just as Tunku.

Forget about the parties. Again, I stress that it is time, we Malaysians, start thinking on our two feet and for our own selves and truly start voting wisely.